Immigrant Update - held in Immigration
Sunday, December 06, 2009 Read more → muslim while flying, trips and vacations, Zahra-Shah In the name of God, entirely Compassionate, especially Merciful | Peace be with you
In the name of God, compassionate & merciful بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ | Peace be with you السلام عليكم
Asalaam alaikum wa rahmatulla.
So I am back in New Zealand!
Yesterday after nearly 40 hours of travel (including back-to-back 22 hours of flight time) I finally reached Dunedin, New Zealand [map].
I was so excited to finally see my husband and I know he felt the same. On the last 2 hour plane ride I found myself with butterflies in my tummy, I couldn't wait to finally be able to stay on solid ground.
InshaAllah there'll be no airplanes till August 2010 and that time it will be for taking my hubby to meet my family in person. An event I have to look forward to...
So the trip wasn't completely awful; Air New Zealand won me over again with their amazing service, good food and heaps of in flight movies and personal entertainment. For those of you who haven't flown over seas at such a long distance, everyone has their own display screen with head phones, a blanket, pillow, and at least for Air NZ they feed you dinner, breakfast and provide juice coffee and tea along with snacks upon request any other time during the flight at no cost to you (I sound like their spokes person), 'thank you, come again!'
Air NZ come on top probably because for the millionth time I am not impressed with Air Canada: I got suckered out of my isle seat - some guy my father's age explained he would be "getting up a lot for the washroom, blah blah blah", so I caved and was stuck in between two huge men who dominated the armrests... it was a long 6 hours of flight. Then to top it off on the meal that YOU have to purchase on Air Canada I got the only option I could consume which was a veggie sandwich which was simply bread with heaps of shredded carrot in the middle, no sauce, yuckh, was dreadfully awful.
My 9 hour lay-by in Los Angeles [map] was alright, I spent most the time using WiFi and talking with my lovely friend Naomi, she was a life saver.
So all in all my trip was good... Except when I got to Immigration... go figure. I have a Visa to be in New Zealand, it permits me to work and stay for a year. I went through the immigration office with all my legal documents.
I make a small du'a in line.
I hand the immigration officer my documents.
Immigration Officer: *looks at my visa* Do you intend to work in New Zealand?
Me: Maybe, I got the Visa in case I needed too.
Immigration officer: Are you traveling alone, and do you know anyone in New Zealand?
Me: Yes I'm alone, and I have quite a few family members and friends here including my husband and my brother.
Immigration Officer: Everything looks good, welcome back to New Zealand enjoy your stay.
Me: Thanks, good to be back. Have a wonderful day.
The immigration officer stamps my passport and I enter to go get my bags and take them through the area for declaring items and to get my bags scanned.
So I had a pack of sealed almonds I bought in LA. Not a huge pack, more medium sized and I was wondering if I should chuck it or declare it to take with... I mean, why throw away good food so I decided to 'declare it'. I also thought they were harmless almonds, it didn't cross my mind that almonds could be suspicious or interrogated...
I grabbed my bags and showed up, handed the next officers my stamped passport and landing papers and declaration form. I 'declared' the almonds.
All of a sudden I am being sent to a line no one else is in... 'What the...?' This is not the line to have your bags x-rayed, 'erm hello, there's been a mistake...'
Then I'm thrown in front of an Officer who asks about a million questions like:
What's your name? - Really? I mean it's on my passport, but anyways... More questions:
What's your date of birth?
Where are you from?
What's your husband's name?
How did you meet him?
Why did you marry a Fijian not a Canadian?
Spell out his full name
What's his date of birth?
Where will you be living?
How many family members do you have in New Zealand?
How many Family members in Canada?
Where did you live in Canada?
What are your intentions in New Zealand?
...and the list went on.
After answering all his questions he sent me to a waiting area, where I made another serious du'a and prayed they didn't send me back to Canada, and that I also don't miss my last flight from Auckland to Dunedin. Why would they send me back? I have a valid visa, they gave me the visa. They wouldn't send me back insha'Allah.
A million thoughts rushed through my mind. What if I don't get to see my husband? I'll miss my brother's wedding. Man, this air ticket cost a lot of money. Even though I was nervous I knew it would be ok, but that's not to say things wouldn't get worse before they got better.
Then a young lady approached me and had me go to an area with chairs surrounding a long metal table in a conference room. She asks me another million questions, a lot of them very personal.
Why did you leave New Zealand in the first place, why didn't you just stay here with your husband the whole time?
My grandmother has cancer, I answered, so I wanted to spend some time with her, and renew my visa.
What type of cancer? She asked.
Anyways, all in all she was nice, probably just doing her job and I admit she apologized a few times saying something about drug trafficking and this just being a "random check", and constantly saying, sorry, it's part of the job.
She tried to reassure me that it was nothing to do with me personally, even though in three international flights, I was the only one there that went in this "special line" and in terms of appearance I was indeed the only Muslim.
I signed a paper saying I had nothing else to declare besides the stupid almonds which I had been cursing for the last 20 mins. It also said I didn't intend to bring anything illegal or do anything illegal within my stay. They took everything out of my bag - which of course in the end I had to re-pack and have x-rayed before running to catch my last flight.
But I am now finally home, safe and sound alhumduillah.
We have a very small flat through my husband's work that's partially paid for, and alhumduillah it's great, but of course I could have lived in a cardboard box before I would live with his family... but that's a whole other story.
Anyways I will keep you all posted. Asalaam alaikum.
By: The Immigrant
Peace & respect ★
A quick note from → Zaufishan, MUSLIMNESS creator
MUSLIMNESS.COM. Savvy Muslims in Media, trendy blogs and Good News. If you too are like, totally awesome, share your ideas by contacting MUSLIMNESS. Sharing is Khayring.
